A former TV producer of The Bill has been accused of offering hit men up to £200,000 to kill his partner so that he could inherit her money.

However, David Harris – who was arrested in November and denies three counts of soliciting to murder – told police that he was just doing research for a crime thriller that he was writing.

Allegations suggest he ordered the hit on his partner Hazel Allinson so that he could spend her inheritance on his mistress Ugne Cekaviciute – among the inheritance would be an £800,000 house.

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The court was told that he met Allinson in 1989, Metro reports, though their sexual relationship deteriorated five years ago after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. He told the police that he met Cekaviciute in a brothel and gave her gifts and cash.

The Old Bailey was also told that Harris said to police that he planned to write a crime novel based on his own life, saying that "the book is still here" as he pointed to his head.

"A guy meets a young girl, he's married, falls in love with the young girl, can't be with the girl because he can't afford to be, knows he could inherit if anything happened to his partner," he explained.

"How could that be achieved? What would be involved? That's about as far as I got because that's the crux of the story."

Harris also claimed he tracked down figures from the "underworld" for research, though stopped telling them it was for a book because of a lack of interest. However, he did meet a man called "Chris", who turned out to be an undercover police officer called Christopher May.

He was arrested on November 12, 2016 while in bed with his mistress, and told police that the characters were "hypothetical" and the scenario was "imaginary", insisting he would never do that to his "soul mate" Allinson.